Autumn Session
May I ask the Leader of the House to be good enough to state the Business for next week, and also what is the Business for to-morrow?
To-morrow it is proposed to take the Law of Property Bill [Lords], Third Reading, and then certain Ways and Means Resolutions, which are required for the Finance Bill. After that we shall take the Government of Northern Ireland [Loan Guarantee] Financial Resolution, Telegraph [Money] Resolution, the Naval Discipline Bill [Lords], Second Reading, and the Wireless Telegraphy and Signalling Bill, Second Reading.
Next week, we propose to devote Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to the Committee Stage of the Finance Bill.
On Thursday, we will take the Colonial Office Vote.
Friday is a Private Members' day.
May I ask the Leader of the House whether he has had the opportunity of discussing with the Home Secretary whether he will give the House an opportunity for debating the question of criminal responsibility raised by the Ronald True case. We cannot very well discuss it on the Estimates, because it would involve legislation?
No, Sir. As I came into the House I heard the right hon. Gentleman asking my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary whether the House could not discuss this matter. I have not seen my right hon. Friend since, and therefore have not had an opportunity of discussing it with him, but I say at once that, in the present state of public business, I do not see how it is possible for me to find a day for all these supplementary subjects, especially if the House wishes to rise in anything like good time having regard to the possibility—the probability—that it may have to meet again in the Autumn in respect of Irish matters. Therefore we must get on with the business that has to be completed before the Adjournment can take place.
May I ask my right hon. Friend—this is the only way I can put it—whether he is aware that we should have no objection to ask for the Home Office Vote if we could have some latitude allowed us by the Chair in respect of the discussion of this matter.
I do not quite know—it is not for me to indicate what latitude the Chairman of Committees would give under a Vote in Committee of Supply—but I conceive that it might be possible to discuss this matter, in the spirit and with the object that my right hon. Friend has in mind, on a Vote in Committee of Supply, providing he omitted to mention legislation!
In making provision for the business of next week has my right hon. Friend omitted to take into account the statement just made by the Colonial Secretary that he will next week make a very important statement on Ireland, and does the right hon. Gentleman intend that there shall not be any discussion upon that statement relating to the Constitution of the Free State, when the statement is made?
I do not think that my right hon. Friend applied to his statement the epithets that my hon. Friend is good enough to apply for him, but I think it is quite possible that a discussion on Ireland may be necessary. Anything I have said must be taken as subject to such an accident as that. At the same time, I would venture to submit that the time for us to discuss the Irish Constitution is not so much when we see the first draft of it, but when we know in what form it emerges from the Constituent Assembly in Ireland.
Message From The Lords
That they have agreed to,—
Amendments to—
Colne Valley Water Bill [ Lords],
Bradford Canal (Abandonment) Bill [ Lords], without Amendment.
House Of Commons (Kitchen And Refreshment Rooms)
Special Report from the Select Committee brought up, and read.
Report to lie upon the Table, and to be printed.
Selection (Standing Committees)
Standing Committee A
Sir SAMUEL ROBERTS reported from the Committee of Selection; That they had discharged the following Members from Standing Committee A (during the consideration of the Trade Union Act (1913) Amendment Bill): Mr. Halls, Mr. Lawson, Mr. Robertson, and Mrs. Wintringham; and had appointed in substitution: Mr. Alfred Davies, Mr. Foot, Mr. Hayday, and Mr. Swan.
Sir SAMUEL ROBERTS further reported from the Committee; That they had added the following Fifteen Members to Standing Committee A (in respect of the Trade Union Act (1913) Amendment Bill): Sir Ernest Pollock, Mr. George Balfour, Sir Montague Barlow, Major Boyd-Carpenter, Mr. Jesson, Dr. Macnamara, Colonel Meysey-Thomson, Mr. Arthur Michael Samuel, Mr. Sexton, Mr. Stanton, Mr. Trevelyan Thomson, Mr. Walsh, Mr. Walton, Mr. Wignall, and Sir George Younger.
Sir SAMUEL ROBERTS further reported from the Committee; That they had added the following Fifteen Members to Standing Committee A (in respect of the Separation and Maintenance Orders Bill): Sir John Baird, Captain Bowyer, Mr. James Brown, Captain Coote, Sir William Howell Davies, Mr. Gillis, Mr. Austin Hopkinson, Lieut.-Colonel Hurst, Mr. Lindsay, Mr. Murchison, Mr. Sugden, Mr. Shoat, Mr. Trevelyan Thomson, Lieut.-Colonel Dalrymple White, and Mr. Wignall.
Standing Committee B
Sir SAMUEL ROBERTS further reported from the Committee; That they had added the following Ten Members to Standing Committee B (in respect of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (Payment of Calls) Bill, the Indian High Courts Bill [ Lords], and the Sale of Tea Bill): Mr. Adamson, Sir Thomas Bennett, Colonel Sir Allen Burgoyne, Mr. ForestierWalker, Mr. Kiley, Mr. Leonard Lyle, Major McMicking, Sir Henry Norman, Mr. Strauss, and Mr. Waterson; and (in respect. of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (Payment of Calls) Bill only) Sir John Baird; and (in respect of the Indian High Courts Bill [ Lords] only) Earl Winterton; and (in respect of the Sale of Tea Bill only) Sir William Mitchell-Thomson.
Sir SAMUEL ROBERTS further reported from the Committee; That they had added the following Fifteen Members to Standing Committee B (in respect of the Harbours, Docks, and Piers (Temporary increase of Charges) Bill: Sir John Harmood-Banner, Captain Sir Hamilton Benn, Mr. John Davison, Sir Arthur Fell, Mr. Gilbert, Mr. Frederick Green, Mr. Inskip, Sir Evan Jones, Sir Donald Maclean, Mr. Neal, Sir William Rae-burn, Mr. Alexander Shaw, Mr. Alfred Short, Mr. Wignall, and Mr. Murrough Wilson.
Standing Committee C
Sir SAMUEL ROBERTS further reported from the Committee; That they had added the following Members to Standing Committee C: Mr. Frederick Green and Mr. Wallace.
Sir SAMUEL ROBERTS further reported from the Committee; That they had discharged the following Members from Standing Committee C (during the consideration of the Electricity Supply Bill [ Lords]): Major Borwick and Sir Samuel Scott; and had appointed in substitution: Viscount Elveden and Mr. Hannon.
Sir SAMUEL ROBERTS further reported from the Committee: That they had added the following Fifteen Members to Standing Committee C (in respect of the Electricity Supply Bill [ Lords]): Sir Ryland Adkins, Lieut.-Colonel Archer-Shee, Sir Philip Dawson, Captain Gee, Mr. Robinson Graham, Mr. William Graham, Mr. Haydn Jones, Mr. John Jones, Mr. Kiley, Mr. Marriott, Mr. John Murray, Lieut.-Colonel Nall, Mr. Neal, Brigadier-General Nicholson, and Mr. Waddington.
Sir SAMUEL ROBERTS further reported from the Committee; That they had added the following Fifteen Members to Standing Committee C (in respect of the National Health Insurance Bill): Mr. Barrand, Mr. Bromfield, Mr. Cautley, Mr. Rhys Davies, Captain Fitzroy, Mr. John Guest, Mr. Hurd, Mr. Godfrey Locker-Lampson, Dr. Macnamara, Sir Malcolm Macnaghton, Sir Alfred Mond, Mr. Pratt, Mr. Samuel Roberts, Mrs. Wintringham, and Sir Kingsley Wood.
Scottish Standing Committee
Sir SAMUEL ROBERTS further reported from the Committee; That they had added the following Ten Members to the Standing Committee on Scottish Bills (in respect of the Employment of Children Act (1903) Amendment (Scotland) Bill): Sir Gervase Beckett, Sir Arthur Fell, Mr. Finney, Lieut.-Commander Kenworthy, Mr. Arthur Michael Samuel, Major-General Seely, Major Steel, Lieut.-Colonel Stephenson, Captain Watson, and Mr. James Wilson.
Reports to lie upon the Table.